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Date Announced: 11 Dec 2019
Liège, 7/10/2019 - LASEA, one of the world leaders in laser micromachining, has announced it is tripling its equity and entering a new growth phase in its various markets. The current shareholders (Epimède, SRIW, Noshaq and private shareholders) are backing this operation to the tune of 6.1 million euros (first phase) to which will be added almost 10 million euros thanks to additional support from Europe and the Walloon Region.
LASEA, the high-tech Liège company, a laser micromachining pioneer With annual organic growth of 32% since 2012, in 7 years, LASEA has multiplied its revenue and its workforce by 7. Now the European leader of femtosecond laser micromachining, it is rapidly increasing its market shares in the USA and Japan. LASEA machines are used for cutting, marking and texturing materials with unrivalled quality and precision (up to 0.2μm, i.e. 250x smaller than the width of a human hair). With cutting-edge R&D at the international level, it regularly initiates innovations well in advance of the state of the art (cutting with no conicity, bio-mimicry, machining along 7 axes simultaneously, etc.). The capital increase will bolster its growth of recent years in both its primary sectors (pharmaceutical industry, luxury, medical devices) and in new sectors like electronics.
New resources to accelerate its growth further and develop new sectors
“With this capital-raising operation, the biggest since LASEA was founded, we are giving ourselves the means to match our ambitions. Our strategy is to further strengthen our commercial presence in our various countries while pursuing our cutting-edge technological developments in laser micromachining. To achieve our goals, we are going to extend our campaigns to recruit new talent and to seek synergies with other companies in our market niches”, Axl Kupisiewicz, Lasea CEO stated. To support this new development phase, a new building in the Liège Science Park will come onstream in June 2020. The 4,000 m² of office and production space (workshops and clean rooms) will allow the current production capacity to be multiplied by three. This investment is covered by a loan of 7 million euros from BNP Paribas Fortis and Belfius.
Benoît Fellin, Investment Manager at the Noshaq Group: “We have backed LASEA in all its development stages, since it was founded in 1999. Today, and starting at Liège, LASEA is acknowledged internationally for its very specific expertise. We are therefore very enthusiastic about taking part in this operation. These new resources will allow LASEA to continue to grow.”
Pierre Paraire, responsible for handling the matter at SRIW: “The entrepreneurial ability of the founder, an innovation strategy translated into a product strategy, international deployment, the level of qualification of human resources, etc. All these factors have led SRIW to reaffirming its shareholder’s support for LASEA by taking part in this new capital-raising operation”
Philippe Degeer, Investment Manager at Epimède: “We are delighted once again to have established a partnership with LASEA and other key investment funds to support this ambitious growth project. Our goal is to help the company grow and enable it to reach a higher level. We have full confidence in the ability of the LASEA team to offer exceptional performance in the future and are delighted to be part of this project.”
The equity capital-raising operation will allow the company to initiate a new development phase, to accelerate sales and to continue a process of industrialising new products stemming from its major research programmes.
About LASEA: Founded in 1999, LASEA supplies production lines to the most prestigious companies in the world including the top 3 Swiss watchmakers, leading glasses manufacturers, the pharmaceutical and medical industry (intra-ocular and cochlear implants), as well as several big names of Silicon Valley. Active in 27 countries and on 4 continents, it has already installed more than 300 machines worldwide (production systems and lines operating 24 hours a day). In addition to its headquarters in Belgium (Liège Science Park), it has subsidiaries in Bordeaux, San Diego and Biel. It employs 80 people and owns a 25% stake in CISEO (formerly WOW group) with CITIUS and UNISENSOR.
LASEA has been a finalist in the competition of the Promising Enterprise of the Year (EY), is part of the 50 fastest-growing companies in Belgium (Fast 50 - Deloitte) and has won various awards including the Wallonia Export Grand Prix 2018 (AWEX) and the Micron d’Or 2018 (Machine-tools category). www.lasea.com
About Noshaq: Noshaq is the financial partner of reference for the creation and development of SMEs in the Liège region. Over the years, Noshaq has developed a panel of funding vehicles in line with market needs and trends and with its strategy. www.noshaq.be
About SRIW: S.R.I.W. develops a wide range of customised solutions to support business creation, development through innovation or investment, internal and external growth, the creation of subsidiaries in Wallonia, Belgium or abroad, winning new markets, etc. The value of its shareholdings currently exceeds 2.2 billion euros. www.sriw.be
About Epimède: Epimède Capital is an investment fund targeting small and medium-sized enterprises with high growth potential in the technology sector. www.epimede.com
E-mail: vmarbehant@lasea.com
Web Site: www.lasea.com
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